Abdul Rashid Dostum
Abdul Rashid Dostum (1954-) was First Vice President of Afghanistan from 29 September 2014, succeeding Yunus Qanuni. Dostum was a powerful Uzbek warlord and former communist who sided with winners during different wars in his country, and he founded the Junbish-i-Milli party. Biography Abdul Rashid Dostum was born in Khwaja Du Koh, Jowzjan Province, Afghanistan in 1954 to an Uzbek family, and he began working at a state-owned gas refinery in 1970. Dostum became a union activist, and he supported the communist regime after it seized power, commanding a 20,000-strong militia during the mid-1980s and controlling the northern parts of the country. During the Soviet-Afghan War, he initially fought against the Mujahideen, but, in 1992, he sided with Ahmad Shah Massoud and Sayed Jafar Naderi during their capture of Kabul. During the Afghan Civil War, he allied himself with Massoud against Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and he created the "Northern Autonomous Zone" with Mazari-i-Sharif as its capital. He printed his own currency, created his own airline, and formed relations with countries like Uzbekistan, and his region remained prosperous and functional even as the rest of the country was torn apart by strife. Dostum also allowed for women to go about unveiled, girls were allowed to go to school, cinemas showed Indian films, music played on television, and Russian vodka and German beer were openly available, activities which were all banned by the Taliban. In 1994, he defected to Hekmatyar's side, but he returned to Massoud's side in 1995. Fight against the Taliban Following the rise of the Taliban in 1996, Dostum formed the Northern Alliance with Massoud and Karim Khalili, opposing the Islamic fundamentalist takeover of the country. He had an army of 50,000 men supported by aircraft and tanks, but his general Abdul Malik Pahlawan betrayed him to the Taliban, and Dostum was forced to flee to Turkey as Mazar-i-Sharif fell. In May 2001, he returned to Afghanistan to open up a new front, and, in November 2001, he received American Green Berets assistance. They gifted him with horse feed and vodka, and they were shocked that the Muslim Dostum drank the vodka himself and spoke English. Dostum, who hated the Taliban, made use of the US soldiers by having them call in close air support to assist his Afghan fighters, and they took Mazar-i-Sharif on 24 November 2001. In December 2001, Dostum had 2,000 Taliban prisoners suffocated. During Hamid Karzai's presidency, Dostum's forces clashed with those of the rival warlord Atta Muhammad Nur, and Dostum survived an assassination attempt in 2003. He went on to serve as Deputy Defense Minister under Karzai, and he went into exile in Turkey from 2008 to 2009 due to the warlord feuds. He returned in 2009 to support Karzai's bid for re-election, and, in 2014, he was chosen as Ashraf Ghani's First Vice President. Category:1954 births Category:Afghan vice presidents Category:Afghan politicians Category:Afghan generals Category:Afghans Category:Vice Presidents Category:Politicians Category:Generals Category:Uzbeks Category:Northern Alliance Category:Sunnis Category:PDPA members Category:Junbish-i-Milli Category:Afghan communists Category:Afghan socialists Category:Communists Category:Socialists Category:Mujahideen